The Devil's Advocate

Trilogy of the Blood Curse #1

by Gherbod Fleming

Madness seizes the world's vampires. Relentless hunger gnaws at them, but no matter how many victims they drain, withered vampires litter the shadows. Not since the Black Death has Owain, Ventrue elder, seen anything like this fatal affliction that ravages the world. But this time vampires are the victims. The anarchs suspect a plot by their elders. The elders blame the Sabbat. The Sabbat fears the return of the antediluvians.There is opportunity in this chaos. As the Masquerade crumbles around Owain, which power will he serve? Or will he serve himself?

The first book of the Trilogy of the Blood Curse, set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. The story crosses over with The Grails Covenant, for Vampire: The Dark Ages.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, World Of Darkness, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Fantasy

287 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting a mere sequel of the Grail Covenant trilogy with Montrovant waking up from slumber and starting again his quest for the Grail, instead there's no trace of the Dark One in this opening book of the Blood Curse trilogy... and that's good.
It was a real pleasure for me meeting again Prince Benison and the other Kindred of Atlanta, who I've met 18 years ago while reading the Clan Novel saga, set after this one, Owain Evans aka Owain ap Ieuan is just one of best vampire characters ever,
loved the historical flashbacks and how the many plots connected, and that final unexpected couple of twists fully rised final vote to five stars.

[Elena Rodríguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one suggested by my husband. One of our biggest fights ever, I asked him if he was a vampire, would you turn me into one so we could spend eternity together? He said "no"! I was incredulous. And he said, I wouldn't want to damn you honey. Soooo, to drive his point home, he asked me to read some vampire fiction, starting with this one. It was a fun, fast read, and I still would like to spend eternity with my husband!

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book to see what happened next, after the strange finish to David Niall Wilson's "The Grail's Covenant" trilogy. The two series were meant to connect together, one taking place in the Dark Ages and the other picking up in the late 20th century. Unfortunately, the connection between the two turned out to be weakly contrived, haphazard, very forced, and lacking in any sense of meaning or depth. In fact, any hope of an intriguing connection between the two was immediately destroyed at the beginning of the first book of Fleming's trilogy, in an infuriatingly pointless destructive act of what appeared to be a consummate literary clod.

From this initiating travesty of writing, the entire first book -- having shat all over everything that was good in Wilson's prequel trilogy -- dove face-first into tepidly written, weakly plotted "professional fanfic" targeting the roleplaying game market with pointlessly commercialized banality and unremarkable characterizations devoid of reasons to give a crap whether they lived or died, with the possible exception of just wanting them to die because of what Fleming did with the implicit promise left by Wilson's clearly superior work.

[Krzysztof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pierwsza część trylogii jak na razie jest w odbiorze średnia. Akcja zaczyna się rozwijać mniej więcej od połowy książki i póki co wydaje się być dość powolna. Mam nadzieję, że kolejne części okażą się lepsze. Póki co moja ocena jest taka, że można przeczytać, ale nie porywa. Znacznie lepsza jest trylogia "Masquerade of the Red Death".

[Deaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't agree this is as awful as others say, it's average. For RPG fiction you get what you expect. I WILL say, however, that the two sequels make the read more valuable.

[Nuno · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining book, which takes place in the world of VtM in the mid-nineties. I found that the plot is interesting (so far, as it's contained in a trilogy) and I liked that it successfully transmits what it can be like to be "alive" for centuries. This is the stuff that Storytellers enjoy, the kind of details that help with the immersion in the game.
I already knew some of the characters for the Clan Novels (which take place later in time) and it was interesting to get to know them better. I'll be starting with the next volume right away...